Wikipedia talk:Signatures

Refusal to sign comments

I've had to deal with a user to refuses to sign his comments on the talk pages. He's made a lot of comments, so going through each one and adding {{unsigned}} is not easy to do. What should I do about it? At what point are unsigned comments vandalism? Could they be removed? Aucaman^Talk 09:07, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I have seen many failures to sign comments on the talk pages. I consider unsigned comments vandalism when the contents are very meaningless, but I am not very sure whether to remove the vandalism. I may prefer adding <!--- things visible to editors but not readers --->.--Jusjih 07:08, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

how can it be vandalism if this is just a guideline, rather than policy? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.200.192.144 (talk • contribs) 01:03, 28 April 2006 (UTC).

Supporters

Supporters of this rule include: Ed Poor, Koyaanis Qatsi (strongly), Eclecticology(mostly, but I do forget to do it sometimes), JHK, 24 (mostly), user:Tsazack, Hyacinth, Jusjih (though I occasionally forget)

Opponents of this rule include: Anon.

I added the tilde tool to this page (as well as Editing help) because it took me a hell of a long time to hear about this. - user:Montrealais

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What was the point of implementing the "sig" preferences option? Having one name on your user page and something completely different in the sig is just daft. It serves no purpose other than to confuse -- Tarquin 11:42 Mar 11, 2003 (UTC)

Your opinion about what is daft, is noted, Tarquin. May I presume that you know of what you speak? -豎眩sv

I have changed my username to match my sig. This is at least the third time I have made changes purely to please Tarquin. I hope he can now wiki in peace. -º¡º

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Something just struck me. Why when we write ~~~~ does it link to the user page and not the user talk page? When we hit someone's usernic we usually want to leave them a message, not read their main page. I've been leaving a message on some pages in visiting four people, it involved eight journeys, to a user page, then talk page, next user page, then talk page, etc etc. Can that be changed? After all, if we want to see their user page, we can always go to it from the talk page, but as 9 times out of 10 we want the talk page, it would make sense to make it the default, with the longer route reserved for the rare occasions when we actually want to go to their main page. Any observations? FearÉIREANN 01:35 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

This has come up before and there are arguments for and against it. One major problem with that approach is that we will end up with mixed signature types unless we do a massive conversion, which might be confusing. Also, I think links should reflect the content of their pages -- when I click on a user name, I expect to see something about that user.

On the other hand, it is clearly very inconvenient to post comments with our current system. Brion has written a quick hack to put at least a shortcut to the edit page on the user page ("Leave a comment for this user"); this would mean that you effectively have to click the same number of times as with your solution. Eventually what I would love to see are some nice tiny icons that appear next to each username, one, maybe like the blue (i) logo, shows the user page, one, maybe a speech bubble, shows the talk page, one, a speech bubble with an exclamation mark in it, opens the talk page in edit mode. Because that would be much different from the sigs we have now, it should be reasonably non-confusing. In the meantime, I think Brion's solution should work fine. --Eloquence 02:16 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

agreed -Smack

This comment was the first reply to Jtdirl, but clearly he didn't like it: Maybe a dual link would be better. -- Tim Starling (Talk) 01:37 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Oh sugar! Sorry Tim it must have got erased in the edit conflict I found myself in. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. (Or as we supposed Irish speakers would say Tá brón orm!) FearÉIREANN 05:22 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

It's alright, it was just an honest mistake, and easily corrected. Save the multilingual apologies for when you burn down my house or shoot me or something. -- Tim Starling 05:38 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

New comment on old talk - Note that this old problem has been mitigated to an extent - By fiddling with the nickname string in the user preferences it is possible to provide a link to both the user page and user talk page in the same signature. The software puts [[User:UserName| sig ]] around the sig string. So by making the sig string nickname ]] [[User_talk:UserName|(talk) you end up with [[User:UserName| nickname ]] [[User_talk:UserName|(talk)]] replacing ~~~~ and a get a link to both pages. Many users now implement this (with lots of interesting variants! Word has it that User:Dori was the first to come up with this trick. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 12:34, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

templates in sigs

Regarding the statements Do not use page transclusion or templates for signatures (signatures which include {{User:Name/sig}}, for example). This is usually seen as an avoidable drain on the server and database., what is the evidence that these cause a drain on the server and database? Is this drain theoretical or has the effect been documented? And just how serious is this drain. It seems that using a template for long signatures makes talk pages considerably less cluttered. That they might be a target for potential vandalism seems a non-issue as anything in Wikipedia is a potential target for vandalism. I guess the negatives of using templates in signatures isn't very convincing as presented here. older≠wiser 18:25, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)

Certainly, a simple text signature (like mine) stored with the page content is less of a burden than yours which is transcluded. First of all, the system has to maintain links to your transcluded signature (see Special:Whatlinkshere/User:Bkonrad/sig). Obviously, the more places you sign, the more links must be maintained. Second, whenever you do change your signature, all those talk pages are purged from the server caches, and must be regenerated (see Wikipedia:Meta-templates considered harmful for a similar discussion of the issue). Third, your signature page is a vandalism target, and will be forever, even if you leave the project. It's not much of a signature if anyone can change it in the future. Lastly, under current policy, someone could request deletion of their /sig page (since it is in your userspace). What happens then? All of this is avoided if we say here and now that only simple, static signatures should be used. -- Netoholic @ 18:48, 2005 Feb 16 (UTC)

Why did you revert my edit to this page? It is, after all, not policy, and making it appear so is somewhat misleading. Your crusade is a mysterious one, and I'll be glad to conform to such a policy if it ever exists, but for now it does not. User:Rdsmith4/Sig 03:35, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

That seems like a false argument. So, you aren't saying the conclusion and reason is wrong; you're only complaining that it isn't policy? I have explained the very real technical problems above. I ask that you change your signature to a static one, and direct anyone else you see who uses a template or transclusion to this page so that they can take action. -- Netoholic @ 05:13, 2005 Mar 7 (UTC)

My signature, "— Ram-Man ^{(comment) (talk)}", has the advantage of providing someone with a link to my talk page. I copied this from someone else and it is very useful. As to the concerns listed, my sig page is protected, and it is also never going to be edited. If I need a new sig, I will create another "/sig2" page in place of the existing "/sig", thus two of the concerns do not apply here. On another note, we have not banned template usage in other situations. A number of templates that I have personally used in Wikipedia articles have become obsolete and needed to be deleted. The same concern applies. So as far as that goes, the amount of overhead is the same as any other template. So what is the problem? -- RM

The difference is that signature templates/transclusion do create avoidable overhead. The overhead on regular templates is acceptable, since it goes into the presentation of the encyclopedia. User signatures are simply meant to be a means to an end, to foster background communication. Adding direct overhead by using anything other than a normal-text signature just adds burden to the server, which is somewhat self-serving, really. -- Netoholic @ 02:24, 2005 Mar 29 (UTC)

I recently started using a template and just got alerted of the fact that it takes up resources. I came here to see how big the impact really is, but i can't find information that would allow me a sober assessment. Can anyone provide some numbers? Thanks — Sebastian (talk) 20:16, 2005 Apr 26 (UTC)

Why not use {{subst:your sig}} and maybe add it to the page as the suggested method? pamri 07:23, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

The sig I had in mind looked similar to this. It was long and cluttered edit and diff view. — Sebastian (talk) 16:44, July 13, 2005 (UTC)

I use {{SUBST:User:GeorgeMoney/sig}} in my signature. --GeorgeMoney^{Talk  Contribs} 01:17, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

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I strongly agree. If Wiki wants us to sign our posts, why can't we customize our sigs?

Tsazack 20:59, 5 October 2005 (UTC) (talk)

signing for others

i know there is a help topic on how to add someone elses signature when they have forgotten it, that should link from here. I'd do that, but I can't even find that article. SchmuckyTheCat 15:37, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Agreed; there needs to be something on {{Unsigned}} AySz88^-^ 17:29, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

Things to avoid: Appearance

Under "Things to avoid: Appearance" it states that "(it) is possible to be playful with the signature, for example by including ornamental Unicode characters (☻♂♖♥★, etc.) and using <font> HTML tags to change the color and/or size", yet it does not state if this is to be avoided or not. The way I read it is that it is acceptable to use Unicode characters and font tags. Witch is it? ·Zhatt· 20:50, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

from what i read, it isn't acceptable, i may be wrong. --Sstabeler (talk) 10:43, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

Personally I'd prefer a complete absence of "playful signatures" and for everyone to have a very simple and obvious one - yes, like mine. ;) It's a small but very common irritation to have to hover over a link in someone's sig to find out which bit is the link to their Talk page, and given the importance of inter-user communication on WP I think clarity should have precedence over creativity. I seem to be in a minority though, and I can't say it's the biggest problem WP possesses, so I'm not expecting any real changes. Loganberry (Talk) 12:07, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Same here. Exploding Boy 23:04, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Zhatt 22:54, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

Timestamp generated by ~~~~

I think it would be nice if the timestamps generated by ~~~~ were displayed in your local time. Your timezone is something you can set in your preferences, and pages like "my watchlist" display dates in your local time. Also, properly formatted dates (such as November 8 1980) are displayed according to your preferences.

I'm not sure where the proper forum to voice this opinion is, so I thought I'd start here. Any thoughts? Has this been proposed and rejected already? JerryOrr 00:34, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Good Guide FrogieFever 02:58, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

When previewing, you'll note the time remains the 4 tildes in the editing field, and is automagically updated in the actual preview part. As soon as you save the page, the stamp becomes raw text, meaning something static that cannot/won't change. Your suggestion would need a change in the Wiki software, making sigs/stamps features a little bit of code instead of the raw time. Retodon8 12:53, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Help with signature date, please

I am trying to make my signature comply with ISO 8601 international standard date format. I have that set correctly in my user preferences, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get my signature to output with the proper date format. I have tried overriding the "Nickname" preference, inserting:

   [[{{CURRENTYEAR}}-{{CURRENTMONTH}}-{{CURRENTDAY2}}]] {{CURRENTTIME}}

but that does not insert the actual current date and time, it merely inserts the variables. This is more than a little frustrating: ISO 8601 is the international standard date format, and it ought not to be this much work to get Wikipedia to display dates correctly rather than in the bizarre "day month year" format that appears to be the default. Is there something I am missing? BBlackmoor ^(talk) 20:38, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Correct your date preferences, not the signature preferences. User:Nichalp/sg 13:46, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

That's the first thing I tried. My date preferences appear to have no effect on what my signature looks like. -- BBlackmoor ^(talk) 14:32, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

User:Mzajac might be able to help you as he too has this format. User:Nichalp/sg 14:39, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, everyone.[1] -- BBlackmoor ^(talk), 2005-10-24 T 21:04:56 Z

I've written a user script: User:Quarl/advanced_sig.js that allows you to use whatever signature you want for ~~~~ (it replaces the text when you submit) and also replace the signature toolbar button if you want. The default is an ISO 8601 timestamp that looks like my signature here. —Quarl ^(talk) 2006-01-05 05:52Z

Forced Signatures

Is there a way to take away the option, so people are forced to give the ~~~ or ~~~~ into their post?

ImaTard 01:53, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Could you be more specific? User:Nichalp/sg 14:39, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

What ImaTard means is, isn't there a way to make people sign their names, or, if they are not members, numbers, so we can at least relate to them?--ViolinGirl 20:48, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Basically, the problem is that wiki is not a discussion board. Using wiki pages for discussions is sheer bad design, and makes it trivial to misattribute, and even modify, people's contributions. For example, I enjoy drowning puppies. -- Jimbo

Yes, the history page will clearly demonstrate who really added a comment, or if they changed someone else's, but who bothers to carefully study the history of discussion pages to ensure that all attributions are correct and all comments unmodified (and, frankly, why should one have to?).

"Non-confusing" sigs.

A recent Arbcom decision mandated (in that particular case) use of a "non-confusing" signature. This would seem to be the place to address the issue of "confusing" sigs in general. In particular, ought it to be the case that signatures:

• Link to the user's own user (and/or talk) page;
• Textually contain, or visually resemble the user's actual username; and/or
• Be free of meta-syntax, that would cause problems if copied verbatim.

Two of the above would have been possibly at issue in the case I'm thinking of, though no standard of confusing/non-confusing was actually specified. Other instances also spring to mind. Is there consensus for general guidance as to any of the above? Alai 19:32, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Page Rename?

Hi,

Just wondering, what do people think of renaming this page to Wikipedia:Please sign your posts on talk pages.

BenAveling 20:33, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

That could involve a lot of policy renames, if we extend the principle... Mind you, this is perhaps the exception in being in the imperative. What about Wikipedia:Signing your posts on talk pages? Alai 05:51, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

I think the imperative is fine - that's the way this tag is usally used. Regards, Ben Aveling 04:20, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi,

Just a heads up that I'm going to raise this at Wikipedia:Requested moves.

Regards, Ben Aveling 07:42, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Let's make 'no images' MUCH stronger

The image server is over-stressed again, and 'vanity' user sigs are one of the most expendable uses of images (IMHO, of course). Can we please ban them instead of just "discourage"ing them, as discussed at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#Unnecessary_images_are_killing_performance.2C_and_should_be_banned. I'd like to see stronger admonitions against blinking and Unicode, etc., as well--I don't know what they are, but this[2] user sig shows as nothing but question marks or boxes on IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera. Niteowlneils 22:42, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Talk page link in my signature has stopped working

Can anyone help? I didn't change anything and all of a sudden it was like this. Grant65[[User talk:Grant65|(Talk)]] 09:54, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Noticed that too. You need to change your Prefs, check the '[v] raw signature' and edit your nickname to a *full* link. HTH, --bitterMan.lha 15:02, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

I noticed I was in the same boat today and just couldn't figure out what was wrong. Thanks for the help there. Doug A Scott (talk) 16:48, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

This happened to me, as well. What on earth? John k 07:30, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Signatures should not contain images

...or should they? Please join the discussion there. Radiant_>|< 23:52, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

anon sigs

Is there a template for the previous comment was from anon user xx.yy.zz? I couldn't find it under 'cat:Wikipedia_templates' or similar. I'd be happy to link it in somewhere. Srl 20:51, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

• {{unsigned}} and {{unsigned2}}. --cesarb 00:01, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

thanks Srl 01:23, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Requested move

Moving this page to "Please sign your posts on talk pages" would make what is often used as an instruction more polite.

On the downside, cleaning up the resulting redirects might mean more than the usual work because people often write "please Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages" and a decision on what to do with those would be needed.

Regards, Ben Aveling 07:52, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

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Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation, then sign your vote with ~~~~

Discussion

Add any additional comments

• Okay, I'll bite. Oppose. I prefer conciseness over politeness in titles. (Besides, when they say "sign your talk pages", I think they really mean it—"please" can sometimes be disingenuous; for example, how often have you seen those little stickers on rental tapes (in the USA anyways) that read: "Please rewind—or 50 cents charge!")
  -,-~^R'lyehRising~-,- 10:22, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose. A quick look through Category:Wikipedia guidelines and Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Types_of_guidelines reveals plenty of guideline titles in the command tense, but only one (Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers) uses the word "please". Avoiding biting the newcomers can be difficult and subjective, and we've all been there. But typing four tildes isn't really asking much. Melchoir 23:01, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

165.230.149.151 23:36, 6 December 2005 (UTC) Ann C never worked at WKJG. Also the Karen Frankola lawsuit was a minor part of the history of this station since it ruled in the stations favor anyway. Most people don't know or care about this.

Result

Not moved. Eugene van der Pijll 20:55, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

External links in signatures

I propose that we add this to the WhatToAvoid section. Zocky 19:40, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

External links

Mass posting of links to a particular website is strongly discouraged on Wikipedia. Posting a link to an external website with each comment you make on a talk page is likely to be viewed as spamming or an attempt to improve your website's ranking on search engines. If you have to tell other Wikipedians about a good website that you are associated with, please do so on your user page.

comments

• Agreed. It seems necessary. For example, User:Stirling Newberry has essentially said on User talk:Zocky that he will not stop until policy comes about against him. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-12-9 19:44
• Agreed. —Matthew Brown (T:C) 21:23, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
• agreed most strongly -- sannse (talk) 21:24, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
• Speedy agree, with a comment that they may/will be removed on sight. -- Netoholic @ 21:53, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
  • I've already done so for all of his signatures. I don't consider it any different from link spam in article external links. — BRIAN0918 • 2005-12-9 22:03
• I concur, it sets a precedent that can far too easily be abused. DS 22:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
• Agreed. bogdan 22:03, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
• Sounds reasonable. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:29, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
• I agree that external links should be discouraged in sigs. Rhobite 04:08, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
• Agreed. -- DS1953 04:34, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
• I Support the discouragement of this practice.--cjllw | TALK 01:59, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
• Agree -- murder1 04:24, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

One line summary

There being a need for concise one line summaries of guidelines, I offer this version. Please feel free to change it as necessary, and update the template Template:Guideline one liner to suit your taste. Please don't remove it simply because you think the summary is inaccurate for this guideline. Comments and opinions welcome! Stevage 03:05, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Formatting the Date

I've recently tried signin documents by manually typing in the date, because I didn't like the default format. However, a couple of other user were concerned, even after omitting the date with 3 tildes. I was wondering if it was possible to format the date, so it shows the Month DD, Year, X:XX AM rather than DD Month, Year 01:23 -- Eddie 08:06, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

If mummy feeds you chocolate every day then some day dies, you will have to go and get your own chocolate - even though you don't like it. If she teaches you the wrong way to do things then you won't like it having to change. You can remain backward while the rest of the world slowly slowly moves forward LEARNING the logical and admittedly initially more difficult way. It took me some years of self control before I could use the correct format and now it irritates me to hear people wanting to retain a completely irrational date format. 20060306182127 Now that may look complicated to you for the first time. When it has been used a hundred times you will find that people who use anything else are making life very complicated. I will undertake the job of proving this (since I am so obsessed with it) because there are a lot of people who do not comprehend. I will return when it has been clearly and logically explained and you will then hopefully not think of me being so arrogant as I do appear here. Kenneth Keen 00:48, 7 March 2006 (UTC) 20060307004729

Thtmkssmchsnssttmptngtwrtnglshwthtspcsrvwls. (That says "That makes as much sense as attempting to write English without spaces or vowels", for those of you who are still sucking at your mummy's teat of irrationality.) --Sam Blanning (formerly Malthusian) (talk) 09:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Nice to see someone awake. When you have not been taught to use a telephone then you will look at the plastic in someone's hand and say "Well if I want to talk to you then I won't want to use this". That is natural. It takes a certain amount of openness and of course "intelligence" to be able to comprehend something which has not yet been explained. It is good to see someone who responds to something which appears illogical rather than just not understanding and moving on. You have prodded it to see if it is alive. Yes, it is and yes it is 100% rational. Humans are not 100% rational. We have to learn to be rational and that is not easy. The rational here is simply the biggest number first. Simple. Rational. And when you teach this to a child of three and it is comprehended then you try teaching that child when it reached the age of 6 that some people want to put the middle number first, then a smaller one and then two smaller ones and then the biggest and then the next smaller he will look at you and ask "Are you serious?" For various reasons the recording of time has left us with all variations of recording the date and once you understand the concept there is no argument against the logic one except that it is difficult for those of us who have learnt the illogical one. The British had that problem last century when they were confronted with the problem of adopting the metric system. No one wanted this difficult metric system, having been used to the "convenient" imperial system. Thankfully, someone forced it upon them and now only people like my mother is still having difficulty. In some years there will be almost no one who is harking back to have the old system reinstalled. Unfortunately when we deal with world markets we come across those who are still fiddling around with antiquated systems, "because they don't LIKE the new ones". Without a little effort (the very essence which sets humans above the animals) we would still be grovelling around in holes in the ground but a certain spirit in us motivated those who were the winners, to take up some tools and use them. You don't want to be left behind do you? (Give yourself three years, then you will see, it is like picking up a phone - how would you do without it? Am I guilty of proselytizing here?)Kenneth Keen 23:09, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

why tildes?

im wondering. why tildes? 71.96.87.21 03:49, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I suppose because some keyboard symbol needed to be used, and tildes aren't used for much else, and they're conveniently located in the corner of the keyboard.

My question is, why doesn't Wikipedia automatically sign your comments for you on talk pages? I could see requiring a manual sig if you wanted to allow logged-in users to post on talk pages anonymously, but people can sign your unsigned posts for you, so that can't be the point. So what is the point? Nareek 14:58, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

How would the server know where to sign your name? Zocky | picture popups 05:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

It would put it at the end of new text inserted onto a discussion page, I guess. Though when you put it that way, I can see how that would create some problems--mainly, people wouldn't be able to edit their comments. Nareek 13:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Plus, sometimes people make two comments in the same edit. --Sam Blanning (formerly Malthusian) (talk) 09:54, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Also there are occasions when you don't need to sign a post on a talk page, e.g. if you are archiving, correcting a typo, adding and {{unsigned}} template, reformatting, etc. Sometime you want to sign things that aren't talk pages, e.g deletion debates. Thryduulf 12:06, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Guideline or policy?

This is listed as a guideline, but I see no reason that it shouldn't be a policy. Thoughts? android79 16:53, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, for one thing, doing it this way probably prevents bickering over what is and isn't covered by the policy/guideline. I also have to wonder about the part about transclusion, where it says "imagine what it would be like if everyone did that"... actually, I don't have to imagine it; almost everyone does that on the Homestar Runner Wiki, and it apparently doesn't cause problems. But maybe there's something about Wikipedia so that it wouldn't work the same way? (for instance, they apparently have had issues with our version of the "new messages" bar, with the "last change" link). Yeltensic42 don't panic 21:15, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

"|"'s in signatures

• Halló! I just want to drop a note about "|"-characters in signatures which are / where very common. With such a signature you will not be able to sign inside templates.
• A signature that is valid in all projects looks like

[[{{SUBST:ns:user}}:Foo|]] · [{{SUBST:fullurl:{{SUBST:ns:user_talk}}:Foo|action=history}} Th] · [[{{SUBST:ns:user_talk}}:Foo|T]]

• When refering to other projects it is most safe to use "generic namespace names". Note That only "w:en:" and "m:" are interwiki prefixes who work in all Wikimedia Foundation projects known to me. Bests regards Gangleri · Th · T 18:32, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

62.171.194.37 09:41, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Unsigned template

Is it ok to add an explanation on using the unsigned template to the main page? Something like this...

Dealing with unsigned comments

The template {{unsigned}} can be used at the end of an unsigned comment to attach the username or ip to the comment.

Usage

{{subst:unsigned|user name or ip|date}}

Example

{{subst:unsigned|88.88.88.88}} becomes —This unsigned comment was added by 88.88.88.88 (talk • contribs) .

{{subst:unsigned|John Doe}} becomes —This unsigned comment was added by John Doe (talk • contribs) .

{{subst:unsigned|John Doe|23:59, 1 April, 2006 (UTC)}} becomes —This unsigned comment was added by John Doe (talk • contribs) 23:59, 1 April, 2006 (UTC).

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I added the above to the page. For more discussion, see the following:
Wikipedia_talk:Sign_your_posts_on_talk_pages#Response_to_removal_of_unsigned_templates.3F
Template_talk:Unsigned#Removal_of_message_by_user
Shawnc 01:23, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

eight ~s

Why does 8 ~s in a row make this signature:

02:29, 5 April 2006 (UTC)TheJabberwock

? TheJabberwock 02:29, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Because the software takes the first five ~ to mean "DATE" and the latter three ~ to mean "NAME". If your question is why it doesnt turn out as "NAMEDATE NAMEDATE" or "DATE NAME", that's pretty easy to: The software checks for five consecutive ~ first, then for four consecutive ~, and for three consecutive ~ last, so that "~~~~~" doesn't turn out as "NAME ~~" instead of "DATE"... Hope I could help! 12:38, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

cool

Response to removal of unsigned templates?

Based on a comment on Template talk:Unsigned, and my experience with a disruptive user on Talk:Heaven's Stairway, I would like to know what the appropriate response should be for a user who repeatedly removes unsigned templates. —Viriditas | Talk 01:21, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

try this--annon

Simple as that--E-Bod 22:04, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Futher explain customizing signatures

The "customizing your signature" section is unclear. How do you simply change its color, for instance? I'd explain, but I am still to figure it out myself... --Chodorkovskiy 16:45, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Oh, that's easy. Just copy the following text into your nickname box in preferences:

[[User:Example|<font color="Any color">'''Example'''</font>]] --Chodorkovskiy ^(talk) 05:26, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I knew someone would help me! --Chodorkovskiy ^(talk) 05:26, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Tip of the day/June 30, 2006. --GeorgeMoney^{Talk  Contribs} 04:21, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Cyrillic signatures

A lot of users I've seen have chosen to sign their name in the Cyrillic alphabet, for aesthetic purposes I assume. However this renders their signature practically unreadable to those English speakers who do not read Cyrillic (who, dare I say, may be in the majority?). I'm a big opponent of using signatures that do not easily convey someone's true username so I'd like to add to WP:SIG a note about not using Cyrillic. Is there any support for this? GT 21:07, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Assuming you are talking about en.wp then I agree, a romanisation should be given where possible. It doesn't seem too much to ask the user to sign their name in the appropriate alphabet and if a user can read a language well enough to contribute then that user can probably sign their name with that language too. This seems to be wikipedia policy for articles so I can't see why it shouldn't also apply to discussion pages. — Flooq ^(Talk) @ 03:39, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, the users can always just click on the name to get the user name if they really need to know it. JoshuaZ 02:26, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree. This should also apply to discussion pages to create conformity. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 03:43, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

unsigned2 useful

A small thing, but I find that {{unsigned2}} is more often useful to me than {{unsigned}}, and was surprised not to find it in the Dealing with unsigned comments section. As noted in the template's talk page, it is perfect for use when cut-n-pasting from page histories. Any problem with adding this here as a one line mention? Shenme 04:16, 24 April 2006 (UTC)